Dawn
by therealmnemo
Summary: Anders, a young ocean Mer, picks a new direction to explore. He ends up spending the day with a young Marian Hawke. Part one of 'You Better Start Swimmin' or You'll Sink Like a Stone.'


A sharp chirping noise distracted Anders from the patient his father was patiently attempting to mend. He turned the mouth of their small cave and his mother clicked at him before her hands quickly signaled Go play, you've pestered your father enough today, be home by dusk.

Anders huffed. It wasn't often there was a wound that needed this much attention, and Anders spent most of the morning asking his father questions as he healed. It was slow work, a shark bite right above her caudal fin. His father looked up from the mer's torn tail and clicked to get Anders' attention. Anders relayed the message from his mother and his father waved him off. As he swam past a hand grabbed his dorsal fin, his father signaled Bring home sea grass flowers if you find them. Anders chirped back in response and swam past his mother and out of the cave.

Anders swam lazily with the current. He passed the the far end of the cave system the rest of their pod called home and curled up on an outcropping that looked over the area. He watched as the daily activities began. The group of Mer designated to gather returned from the North, pouches full of assorted shellfish and seaweed, those designated as hunters had already left for their daily hunt. In a clearing past the caves, the pod's leader Orsino signaled instructions to the three adults in charge of instructing the young. Anders could hear the chirping and clicking from the young as they clung to the fins and hair of their caretakers.

These young Mer were the closest peers Anders had. He was born before a brief famine forced his pod to leave their last home. He watched the travelling nursery swim towards the surface and remembered his own education. He knew they would be taught their hand signals and language, shown how to gather seaweed and give thanks to the moon and stars, and warned about the humans that could harm them.

Anders left his perch to explore. Today, he decided to swim to the north of the dwellings. He followed a school of whitefish as they dashed to and fro. The long sea grass tickled his fins as swam through it. As the the waters became more shallow, the sea grass became more sparse. He noticed a few catfish wiggling along the ocean floor and pushed flat to the sand to reach out and run a hand over them. Catfish and their little 'whiskers' were his favorite creatures to watch.

After the catfish scattered, Anders continued on his journey. He picked small sea grass flowers that bloomed closer to the surface as he swam along. Once he realized he left his gathering pouch at home, he resigned to wait for his return trip to pick any more.

Something shiny caught his eye as the ocean floor continue to rise. It was a small cage. Anders swam closer to get a look. It was covered and filled with small crabs and attached to a chain that trailed up to the surface. He let his curiosity get the better of him and followed it up to the surface.

When he was about to break the surface the chain started moving. The cage lifted through the water and Anders strafed to avoid it and breached the ocean's surface.

A young human girl held the cage in her hands, but her eyes were fixed on his. She squealed and drop the cage back into the water. Anders froze. He knew humans were dangerous, but she was small, maybe just a couple years younger than he was. The girl walked to the edge of the dock, still staring intently, and promptly tripped over the chain into the water.

* * *

Anders sat with his tail in the surf, holding the young human's foot in his hands. There was a long scrape down the side from hitting the dock when she tripped. After pulling her to shore, the girl still hadn't spoken - she just continued to stare at him.

He examined the foot and placed a hand over the wound. With a soft green glow, the skin began to knit back together. He clicked excitedly at his success and looked to the girl with a grin from ear to ear.

She wiggled her toes and reached down to touch the new skin. The girl pulled her foot back and tucked her legs before reaching out to touch his face. Anders knew what she was looking at, there was a small smattering of scales beneath his eyes that matched the color of his tail. Her hands dropped to the gills behind his ear, where he giggled at the touch. When she reached for his tail, she stopped and looked at him.

"It's just my tail, you can touch it!" He flipped his long tail up out of the water with a splash.

Her hands poked at the fins near his hips and brushed down the scales in a combination of orange and yellow that shone like gold in the sun. She laughed when he waved his fins.

"You feel just like a fish!" Her blue eyes sparkled before her brows furrowed in thought. "I'll be right back! Let me grab my swimming mask!"

Anders watched her run off, amazed that she kept balance on two legs. Her long black hair bounced in ringlets around her shoulders. She opened the door to a small shed up against a small cottage and disappeared inside. A few minutes later she stumbled out with a small plastic mask and handed it to Anders when she sat in the water once more.

"Hold this for me, please."

Anders held the plastic mask, it looked like it would go over her eyes, nose, and mouth. There was a small rune inlaid over the mouth covering. The girl pulled her hair back into a sloppy braid before reaching for the mask once more.

"My name's Marian, what's yours?"

"I'm Anders, ho-"

"I'm eight, and my brother and sister are four, how old are you?"

"I just turned twelve, my birthday was just this pas-"

"Do you want to swim with me?"

Anders grinned at the curious girl. Her feet kicked in the water with excitement, braid bouncing, a runed cross symbol spun around her neck.

"I'd love to. What does the mask do?"

She pulled it over her face, it was a comical sight.

"The rune helps me breath." Her voice was distorted by the cumbersome mask.

Anders held out his hand, letting Marian take hold.

Once the water was deep enough and Marian's feet no longer touched the ocean floor, Anders took her hands and put them on either side of his waist, just like how the young Mer hang on to their teachers. He squeezed her hands to indicate a firm grip and then vaulted forward through the water with a firm flutter kick.

They spent hours swimming through the coral reef that spiraled the off the dock and into the depths. Anders stopped every time Marian gave his long strawberry-blond hair a tug to let her explore anything that caught her eye. She poked at the sea anemones, ran her hands over the wings of a group of stingrays that passed by, and they both curled onto the ocean floor to pet the catfish mulling about.

The light from the surface faded through the day, and he realized he would need to leave soon to be home by dusk. On the way back to the shore, he pulled one more flower from the sea grass. He swam right up to the sandy beach next to the dock where she pulled off the mask and tossed it towards the cottage. When she looked back at him he slipped the small yellow flower behind her ear.

Marian touched the flower and flushed bright red before leaning forward to kiss Anders on the cheek, transferring the flush to his own face.

" **Marian Hawke!** "

She turned around to the bellowing voice coming from the window. A man that had to be her father appeared, hands on the sill, with a look of frustration on his face.

"Where in the Maker's name have you been Marian?"

"I was just swimming with Anders! He's twelve and he's a mermaid and he fixed my foot and -"

She turned around to point at her new friend but he was nowhere in sight. When she turned back to her father, his face smoothed into a placating smile.

"That's nice honey, it's good to have imaginary friends, but you need to be back before dinner. Your mother is upset, come inside before he starts yelling."

* * *

Anders watched from the end of the dock. He felt bad about hiding, but the older man scared him, and he was already hearing the scolding his mother was going to give him about talking with a human girl.

Marian. The afternoon spent with her was the best he had in recent memory. He loved showing her the ocean and all its creatures. The look on her face made his heart flutter. She was also very pretty and he planned to come back the next day.

He pushed off from the deck, swimming on his back to watch the small cottage fade into the distance.

It was the last thing he saw before the nets and everything went black.


End file.
